Glass container angular displacement device

ABSTRACT

Apparatus for automatically adjusting the orientation of glass containers, including tilting and/or inverting the containers. The apparatus includes a rotatable worm conveyor and a plurality of guides partially curved about the worm conveyor so that containers received therebetween are caused to be tilted and/or inverted upon rotation of the worm conveyor.

United States Patent 1191 Cook [ GLASS CONTAINER ANGULAR DISPLACEMENTDEVICE [75] Inventor: Charles W. Cook, Muncie, Ind. ,[73] Assignee: BallCorporation, Muncie, Ind.

[22] Filed: Sept. 18, 1970 [21] Appl. No.: 73,528-

Related U.S. Application Data [63] Continuation-impart of Ser. No.777,419, Nov. 20,

1968, abandoned.

[52 U.S. c1. 198/33 AC 51 1m. (:1 ..B65g 47/24 58 Field of Search:198/33 Ac, 33 AA,

198/33 AD, 104, 160; 193/43 A [56] References Cited UNITED STATESPATENTS 3,495,291 2/1970 Copping et a1 198/33 Ac Jan. 15, 1974 Hohl eta1. 198/33 AA 3,314,522 4/1967 Croall 198/33 AC 2,604,200 7/1952 Hohl etal. 198/33 AA 2,974,774 3/1961 Stuart 198/33 AC PrimaryExaminer--Richard E. Aegerter Assistant Examiner-Douglas D. WattsAttorney-Campbell and ORourke and Gilbert E.

Alberding [5 7 ABSTRACT Apparatus for automatically adjusting theorientation of glass containers, including tilting and/or inverting thecontainers. The apparatus includes a rotatable worm conveyor and aplurality of guides partially curved about the worm conveyor so thatcontainers received therebetween are caused to be tilted and/or invertedupon rotation of the worm conveyor.

4 Claims, 19 Drawing Figures PATENTEDJAN 1 5 I814 3. 785.473

" sum 1nF' INVENTOR. CHARLES W. COOK BY M, M

PATENTEDJAN 1 51914 INVENTOR.

CHARLES W. COOK r v ATTORNEYS Q WE PATENTEDJAH 15W 3.7%.473.

m 3 OF 3 /QO /Q/ l// INVENTOR. CHARLES W. COOK ATTOR/VE Y5 GLASSCONTAINER ANGULAR DISPLACEMENT DEVICE CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATEDAPPLICATION BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention Thisinvention relates to apparatus for angularly displacing articles, and,more particularly, relates to apparatus for tilting and/or invertingglass containers.

2. Description of the Prior Art It is oftentimes necessary to angularlydisplace an article subsequent to formation and/or use. This isparticularly true in the glass container field where such containersmust often be tilted and/or inverted at least once during processing andsubsequent use. For exam ple, in processing newly formed glasscontainers, it is often necessary, or at least desirable, to eithertemporarily tilt the container or, in some instances, invert thecontainer for purposes such as inspection of the ware.

While ware, such as glass containers, could, in many cases, be manuallytilted or inverted, such a procedure would require constantattention andcould limit production capabilities. In addition, at least some suchcontainers should preferablynot be manually handled as, for example,where the containers are at elevated temperatures.

While apparatus has been developed heretofore to effect angulardisplacement of articles, no such apparatus has provided means wherebyarticles, including glass containers, can be angularly displaced and, inparticular, tilted or inverted in a manner that has been found to becompletely successful. In some instances, for example, such apparatushas been unsuccessful for use with glass containers due to excessiveware damage and/or inability of the equipment to properly handle theware to be angularly displaced at the necessary speeds required. Inaddition, such prior art apparatus has not been found to be completelyacceptable due, at leastin part, to excessive space requirements and/ora requirement for floor mounting.

Apparatus has also been developed heretofore which includes an inclinedtwisted chute which inverts ware as it passes therealong under theinfluence of gravity. This type of apparatus has, however, likewise notproven to be completely successful due, at least in part, to problemsencountered because of the necessity for different processing levels atopposite sides of such apparatus.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION This invention provides an improved apparatusfor angularly displacing articles and, particularly, for tilting orinverting glass containers that is simple yet dependable, can beutilized without necessity for providing different processing levels, iswell suited for high-speed operation, is compact, and does not requirefloor mounting.

It is therefore an object of this invention to provide an improvedapparatus for angularly displacing articles.

It is another object of this invention to provide an improved apparatusfor tilting and/or inverting glass containers.

It is still another object of this invention to provide a simple yetdependable apparatus for tilting and/or inverting glass containers athigh speeds and/or with the container, if inverted, being at the samelevel as before inversion.

It is still another object of this invention to provide an improvedapparatus for tilting and/or inverting glass containers wherein thecontainers may be easily inspected.

It is yet another object of this invention to provide an improvedapparatus for tilting and/or inverting glass containers that is compactand does not require floor mounting.

With these and other objects in view, which will become apparent to oneskilled in the art as the description proceeds, this inventionresides inthe novel construction, combination and arrangement of partssubstantially as hereinafter described, and more particularly defined bythe appended claims, it being understood that such changes in thedescribed embodiments of the hereindisclosed invention are meant to beincluded as come within the scope of the claims.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The accompanying drawings illustrateseveral embodiments of the invention according to the best mode so fardevised for the practical application of the principles thereof, and inwhich:

FIG. I is a perspective view of the device of this invention shownmounted above a conveyor belt to invert containers;

- FIG. 2 is a top sectional view of the inverter taken through the lines2-2 of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is an end view of the inverter shown in FIG.

FIGS. 4 and 8 are sectional views of the support units illustratingsupport of each guide at about a 45 greater angle than the precedingsupport;

FIG. 9 is a partial top plan view of an alternate embodiment of thedevice of this invention shown mounted above a conveyor belt. to tilt,or angularly-displace, containers by and then later re-orient thecontainers to their original position;

FIG. 10 is a front view of the tilting device shown in FIG. .9 withadditional containers shown in the device for clarity in description;

FIGS. IlI through 18 are sectional views taken through lines IIII tolines lbll8, respectively, of the device shown in FIG. It); and

FIG. I9 is a partial top view of another alternate embodiment of thedevice of this invention similar to that shown in FIG. 9 but addinguninterrupted front guides.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT Referring now to FIGS. I through8 of the drawings, a worm conveyor 7 having a plurality of helicalgrooves d is supported for rotation about a horizontal axis in a frame 9that is preferably mounted slightly above a horizontal conveyor belt- I0of the type normally used to transport glass containers Ill in singlefile from one point to the other, as for example, from a lehr to aninspection station, or from one inspection station to another inspectionstation or a packing station. As shown in the drawings, a plurality ofadjacent conveyors are utilized, but it is to be realized that a singleconveyor could be used, if desired.

Worm conveyor 7 is preferably of a material that will avoid damage tothe containers to be inverted, and is preferably formed of paperphenolic, hard rubber, or nylon, for example. In addition, worm conveyor7 has a shaft 12 that extends beyond end 13 of frame 9 with said shafthaving a pulley 14 fixed thereto. A conventional motor 15 is mountedonthe top 16 of frame 9 and belt 17 extends between motor pulley l8 andpulley 14 so that motor 15 rotates worm conveyor 7.

Three guide members 20, 21, and 22, preferably nylon orgraphite-impregnated nylon rods, are supported in spaced relationshipwith respect to said worm conveyor 7. As shown in FIGS. 1 through 8 ofthe drawings, each guide member is curved to define a helix which isdirected substantially oppositely to that defined by the grooves 8formed in worm conveyor 7, and each guide member is curved about theworm conveyor through about 180 from end to end so that the wormconveyor is received between the guides. A series of five supports 24through 28 are spaced along the length of worm conveyor 7 with eachsuccessive support providing an offset for the guides through angles of45 with respect to the preceeding guide support (as shown in FIGS. 4through 8 which illustrate how the guides are positioned at eachsuccessive support position). While the rods may be flexible beforebeing held in place by the supports, as would be the case withgraphiteimpregnated nylon rods, they are substantially rigid whensupported by supports 24 through 28.

As seen best in FIGS. 4 through 8, each of the supports 24 through 28includes a hanger portion 30 through 34, respectively, conventionallysecured, as by bolts, at one end to frame 9(as shown in FIGS. 1, 2, and3, hanger portions 30 and 34 of supports 24 and 28, respectively, arefastened to the ends of frame 9, while hanger portions 31, 32, and 33 ofsupports 25, 26, and 27, respectively, are fastened to the top of frame9). I

Angle brackets 36 through 40 are conventionally secured, as by welding,to hanger portions 30 through 34, respectively. As shown best in FIGS. 4through 8, angle brackets 36 and 40 are generally L-shaped, while anglebrackets 37, 38, and 39 are generally U-shaped.

Each of the angle brackets supports a plurality of spaced holder units42 each of which includes a shaft 46, one end of each of which has screwthreads thereon and is received in openings in the angle brackets withbolts 47 and 48 at opposite sides of each bracket so that the length ofthe shaft is thereby adjustable to thus permit different sizes ofcontainers to be inverted.

At the inward end of each shaft 46 of the holder units 42 is a guideholder 50 secured thereto, by any appropriate means. Guide holder 50 hasa groove 51 dimensioned appropriately to support one of the guidemembers securely therein. When secured within groove 51, the particularguide member is supported for engagement with a surface of a glasscontainer 11 passing between the guide members and the worm conveyor 7.

Although each of the holder units 42 may be identical, it should bereadily noted that the number thereof attached to a particular anglebracket varies as needed. Thus, on supports 24 and 28, at the beginningand the end of the inverter, respectively, only two holder units 42 areprovided. In this connection, it should be noted that the glasscontainer is supported by the conveyor and, hence, no third holder isneeded. With respect to supports 25, 26, and 27, which are intermediatethe ends of the converter, however, the container is no longer incontact with the conveyor and, hence, three guides are utilized and,hence, three supports are provided.

As shown in FIG. 1, the horizontal conveyor belt (moving from left toright) transports glass containers to be inverted. The containers arereceived between worm conveyor 7 (turning in a counter-clockwisedirection as viewed from the left end of the apparatus) and the guides.As the container passes support 24, guide 20 is contiguous to the finishsurface of the container while guide member 21 is contiguous to the sideof the container opposite the worm conveyor. The container then seatsitself within a groove 8 in the worm conveyor 7. Since the worm conveyor7 is rotating and since the guides are curved partially around the wormconveyor, and more particularly over it, the container is lifted fromthe conveyor belt. As the container reaches support 25 it is no longersupported, at its bottom surface, by the horizontal conveyor belt and issupported by guide member 22 as the motion of the container, togetherwith the rotation of worm conveyor 15, continues. The containercontinues to be supported in this manner as it rotates further, passingby succeeding supports 26 and 27. Finally, as the container passessupport 28, the finish surface of the container is supported by thehorizontal conveyor belt as the container has now been completelyinverted.

If desired, screw 7 can be elongated (not shown) at the entrance end ofthe apparatus and a finger (not shown), preferably of nylon or the like,positioned adjacent to the screw so that incoming containers arepositioned therebetween and resulting in the finger causing positiveengagement of the containers with the screw. This positive engagement ofthe container with the screw results in the container being liftedslightly prior to engagement with lower guide 22 to assure smoothtransfer from the conveyor to the inverting apparatus.

Referring now to FIGS. 9 through 18 of the drawings, an alternateembodiment of the invention is shown for tilting the glass containers sothat the containers are angularly displaced about and then later causingthe containers to be angularly displaced'in the opposite direction bythe same number of angular degrees whereby the containers arere-oriented to assume their original positions (which is normally theupright position). Tilting of the containers in this manner permitsinspection of the bottoms of the containers, for example.

As shown in partial form in FIGS. 9 and 10, worm conveyor 107 has aplurality of helical grooves 108 therein in which grooves the glasscontainers 111 on conveyor belt are received in the same manner asdescribed with respect to the embodiment of the invention shown in FIGS.1 through 8. Since the worm conveyor is supported and driven in the samemanner as described with respect to the embodiment of the inventionshown in FIGS. 1 through'8, and since the guides are supported in a likemanner, the support and driving structures have been omitted from FIGS.9 and 10.

Guide members 120, 121, and 122 are curved but differ from guides 20,21, and 22 which are described in connection with the embodiment of theinvention shown in FIGS. I through 3. As shown in FIGS. 9 and 10, guideI is positioned above incoming and discharged containers on conveyorbelt III) at both the infeed and discharge ends of the device, while theworm conveyor III? is positioned at the side of the containers and isrearwardly of the containers as shown in FIGS. I through Id. From eachend of the device, guide I20 is curved upwardly and over the wormconveyor and, thus, upwardly and rearwardly where the worm conveyor isbehind the containers initially, so that at the central portion of thedrive guide I2II is above but rearwardly of the worm conveyor. Thus,guide I20 is curved first in one direction and then in the oppositedirection with a like curvature so that containers are angularlydisplaced, or tilted, and then returned to their original positions.

Guide member IZI extends trom in front of the worm conveyor I07 at eachend of the device so that incoming and dischargedcontainers are betweenguide I2I and the worm conveyor. Guide IZI is then curved in oppositedirections from the ends of the device in the same manner and with thesame spiral curvature of guide I20 except that guide IZI- terminatesshort of the center of the device and at termination is directly abovethe worm conveyor.

Guide member I22 extends from below the worm conveyor (or nearly so) ateach end of the device forwardly and upwardly to terminate short of thecentral portion. At the point of termination, guide I22 is for wardly ofthe worm conveyor and containers are lifted by bottom contact with thecurved portion of guide member 122 at the infeed end of the device andare permitted slow re-orientation due to the opposite curvature at thedischarge end of the device. The curvature of guide member I22 is likethat of guide members I20 and IZI, and guide I22 terminates short of thecentral portion of the device as does guide I21.

Thus, as shown best by FIGSJII through Id, as the worm conveyor III!rotates with containers III) in grooves Ittd in the worm conveyor, eachglass container is raised and tilted as it passes along the device fromthe in-feed end toward the discharge end. With the guides curved asshown in FIGS. 9 through Id, the angular displacement, or tilting, ofthe container is through an angle of 90", after which the container islowered and returned to its original upright position on the conveyorbelt at the discharge end of the device. As shown in the embodiment of'the device in FIGS. 9 through In, the worm conveyor rotates clockwise,as viewed from the in-feed (right side as shown in FIGS. 9 and III) endof the device, and the containers are raised and tilted over the wormconveyor so that at the central portion of the device the side of eachcontainer contacts the top of the worm conveyor and, thus, exposes thebottom of each container. By breaking or terminating guides I2I and I22(or at least one of them), faulty containers can be readily removed fromthe device either manually or by automatic rejection devices (not shown)conventional in the field.

As shown in the embodiment of the invention according to FIG. II, thedevice is identical to that shown in FIG. 9, except that a guide 22I isprovided that is similar to guide IZI but having an additional portionto extend through the central portion of the device forwardly of theworm conveyor III? and, hence, this additional portion is engageablewith the bottom of the container throughout passage of the containerthrough the central portion of the device. This optional guide 221 can,of course, be utilized where deemed necessary or desirable as, forexample, to prevent a container from moving forwardly while angularlydisplaced by 90. As also indicated in FIG. I9, guide I22 can be extendeduninterrupted if desired to aid in container control.

The foregoing operation has been described within the framework of theseveral embodiments illustrated. It should be realized, however, thatother equivalent variations of the illustrated apparatus arecontemplated as being within the scope of the present invention. Forexample, the illustrated apparatus could be shortened or lengthened andsupports deleted or added so that the apparatus provides other partialinversions or complete rotation of the container as desired to fulfill aparticular need. Further, the worm conveyor could be formed from amaterial such that the particular dimensions of the groove formedtherein are unimportant to the effective operation of the apparatus.Thus, the present invention is not in any way meant to be limited to theprecise embodiments shown and described.

What is claimed is:

I. Apparatus for automatically altering the angular orientation of glassarticles, comprising: three spaced guides at least a portion of each ofwhich has two sections curved in a predetermined manner with saidcurvature of one of said sections being substantially the opposite ofthe other, two of the three spaced guides terminating short of thecentral portion of said guides; and rotatable drive means positionedwithin said guides and spaced therefrom a distance sufficient to receivearticles to be angularly displaced therebetween, rotation of saidrotatable drive means causing articles between said rotatable drivemeans and said guides to be angularly displaced about 90 degrees topermit the bottom of the articles to be inspected in one angulardirection for a predetermined angular distance and then returned in theopposite angular direction to the original orientation. I

2. Apparatus for automatically and temporarily angularly displacingglass containers for bottom inspection, said apparatus comprising:driven worm conveyor means adapted for engagement with a lateral surfaceof the containers; horizontal conveyor means adapted for frictionalengagement with a lower surface of the container and positioned toconvey containers thus engaged into engagement with said worm conveyormeans and carry discharged containers away from said apparatus; and aplurality of guide means spaced from one another, said guide meanshaving an infeed end portion curved in a predetermined manner and adischarge end portion curved oppositely to the curvature of said infeedend portion with said worm conveyor means being positioned within saidguide means and rotatable in a direction to cause containers to belifted at said infeed portion of said guide means and angularlydisplaced in a first direction to a position whereat the bottoms of saidcontainers may be readily inspected and to cause said containers to belowered at said discharge portion of said guide means and returned tothe original upright position by angular displacement in the oppositedirection with respect to said first direction for the bottoms tore-engage said horizontal conveyor means at said discharge portion.

placed 90 and then returned to the upright position.

3. The apparatus of claim 2 wherein said guide means of a centralportion and wherein another of said guides are curved so that Saidcontainers are angulafly has a central portion extending forwardly ofand above 4. The apparatus of claim 2 wherein three guides are Saidrotatable drive means' utilized and wherein one of said guidesterminates short

1. Apparatus for automatically altering the angular orientation of glassarticles, comprising: three spaced guides at least a portion of each ofwhich has two sections curved in a predetermined manner with saidcurvature of one of said sections being substantially the opposite ofthe other, two of the three spaced guides terminating short of thecentral portion of said guides; and rotatable drive means positionedwithin said guides and spaced therefrom a distance sufficient to receivearticles to be angularly displaced therebetween, rotation of saidrotatable drive means causing articles between said rotatable drivemeans and said guides to be angularly displaced about 90 degrees topermit the bottom of the articles to be inspected in one angulardirection for a predetermined angular distance and then returned in theopposite angular direction to the original orientation.
 2. Apparatus forautomatically and temporarily angularly displacing glass containers forbottom inspection, said apparatus comprising: driven worm conveyor meansadapted for engagement with a lateral surface of the containers;horizontal conveyor means adapted for frictional engagement with a lowersurface of the container and positioned to convey contAiners thusengaged into engagement with said worm conveyor means and carrydischarged containers away from said apparatus; and a plurality of guidemeans spaced from one another, said guide means having an infeed endportion curved in a predetermined manner and a discharge end portioncurved oppositely to the curvature of said infeed end portion with saidworm conveyor means being positioned within said guide means androtatable in a direction to cause containers to be lifted at said infeedportion of said guide means and angularly displaced in a first directionto a position whereat the bottoms of said containers may be readilyinspected and to cause said containers to be lowered at said dischargeportion of said guide means and returned to the original uprightposition by angular displacement in the opposite direction with respectto said first direction for the bottoms to re-engage said horizontalconveyor means at said discharge portion.
 3. The apparatus of claim 2wherein said guide means are curved so that said containers areangularly displaced 90* and then returned to the upright position. 4.The apparatus of claim 2 wherein three guides are utilized and whereinone of said guides terminates short of a central portion and whereinanother of said guides has a central portion extending forwardly of andabove said rotatable drive means.